Surgical outcomes in patients with cutaneous malignant melanoma in Europe – a systematic literature review

There is limited comparative evidence of the outcomes of different types of surgical management in patients with malignant melanoma in Europe. To address that gap we conducted a systematic literature review to summarize studies reporting outcomes of surgical procedures in patients with malignant melanoma in Europe. Medline was searched for European studies published in English, between 2004 and 2014 reporting surgical outcomes in adults with cutaneous malignant melanoma. We identified 23 studies that evaluated 18 332 patients treated surgically between 1979 and 2009 from 11 European countries. Most of the studies (21/23) were observational; the two remaining studies were randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Studies compared the effect of a range of surgical interventions on a range of clinical outcomes, more commonly overall survival (OS) and disease‐free survival (DFS)/recurrence‐free survival (RFS). Wider excisions were not associated with improved survival in patients with melanoma thickness ≥2 mm in both studies (RCTs), however, recent results based on long‐term follow‐up data associate 3 cm excision margins (vs. 1 cm) with favourable survival outcomes. There was some evidence that complete lymph node dissection after positive sentinel lymph node offers survival benefits over therapeutic lymph node dissection. Sentinel lymph node biopsy was not shown to be associated with significant OS benefits, however, it was overly related with higher rates of DFS/RFS. This review highlights the difficulties of making comparisons between different types of surgical procedures for malignant melanoma. As surgery remains the main treatment, this is an important field, and further evidence, particularly from RCTs, is needed.